Trump’s messaging maelstrom

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

Politics, Government, Daily News, News

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two big things are happening in Washington today, and each involves a separate controversial figure. On Capitol Hill, the House is set to vote on closely watched legislation to release the files from the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It is far from the first time Epstein has been at the center of activity on the Hill, but President Donald Trump’s U-turn to encourage Republicans to vote for the release has taken much of the drama out. At the White House, Trump will welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Playbook’s Jack Blanchard and White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns walk through what to expect, plus Trump’s latest affordability pitch.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Extra value meals are back. That means 10 tender juicy McNuggets and medium fries and a drink are just $8.
0:08.4	Only at McDonald's. For limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska, and California, and for delivery.
0:20.3	Today on the Playbook podcast, Donald Trump welcomes Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House.
0:27.8	Will that distract from the Epstein Files vote?
0:30.4	I think not.
0:31.5	And how is the president's affordability pitch going?
0:34.1	We'll take a deeper look at that as well.
0:36.8	Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard. And I'm Dasha
0:39.1	Burns. It is Tuesday, November 18th. Dasha, how are you doing? Good morning. I am hanging in there.
0:46.9	How are you? I am excited. Today is the day of the Epstein Files vote. Come on, we don't get big
0:52.9	votes in Congress very often anymore. You know, they don't do very much over there these days. Although it's not a mystery this time around really about which way it's going to go, I think. I know. I was trying to hype it up, but Donald Trump rather took the wind out of the sales, didn't he, on Sunday now with that pretty dramatic you turned on this whole thing. I was thinking about it yesterday, you know, why did he do it?
1:12.0	And now I gather you have got the latest on what the thinking was inside the White House about
1:17.2	why he just suddenly flipped the script on the Epstein files. What I'm hearing is that he had been
1:21.9	sort of slowly coming to this place over the course of a week or several days. He'd been talking to many Republicans on the Hill and White House aides
1:31.1	and realize, listen, the Republicans are going to vote in favor of this.
1:34.9	He wanted to come out on the right side of that vote
1:38.2	and relented to this quote-unquote inevitable reality,
1:42.4	as one White House official put it. And the strategy now is to give
1:47.2	Republicans, as one official said, a perceived win so they can go back to their districts and say,
1:52.2	I voted to release the Epstein files. The concern, though, and part of the reason that it took
1:57.0	the president so long to get to this point is that they feel that no matter what happens
2:02.6	here, people are not going to be satisfied with what comes out. They say there is no smoking gun.
	...

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